Good stuff, bring back memories of watching it live..... great times. Too bad we have stalled since then.

So true. One of my great memories was the Company Commander (D.I. in the Navy!) brought in a portable TV so we could watch the landing live. The really good thing is that he gave us a very light day the next day because half of the boot camp company sat up and watched. You could have heard a pin drop for almost 20 minutes.

Too bad so many people cried about all that money being wasted on the space program. They must have thought that dollars were stuffed into the rockets and that was what was being shot off into outer space. Stupid!!! Every penny was spent employing people, buying goods and materials that employed people, using service that employed people, and even better, was spent on research and development which also employed people and led to a whole boatload of stuff we take for granted today.

Where would we be if we had continued at anywhere near that pace for the last 40 years?

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"Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility.” ― Dietrich Bonhoeffer

To me what said it all about expectations in the late 60s was the movie 2001 A Space Odyssey. I remember thinking that starting years with 20 in place of 19 is odd enough, but being "out there" was going to be fantastic. And then it all stopped cold. When 2001 actually came and went and we had gone no where, I couldn't help but think how high our expectations were back then and the belief that we could do anything. That expectation has evaporated. Sad.

Oh, we could still do it, Dr. Hal. All it really takes is that the politicians involved actually develop a desire to move toward the future instead of protecting their present - which has been increasing the practice since 1972.

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"Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility.” ― Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Oh, we could still do it, Dr. Hal. All it really takes is that the politicians involved actually develop a desire to move toward the future instead of protecting their present - which has been increasing the practice since 1972.

NASA will never be able to have a goal and stick to it as long as the goals are set by politicians who are subject to re-election every 2-6 years. In many ways having Kennedy set the goal as the moon in landmark speech was part of the problem. Once that was achieved and the Soviets humbled, all interest in funding manned flight began to dribble away.

I generally think that NASA is doing quite well managing the budget they have. I'd prefer more robotic, and less manned budget, but I understand the need for both. I am hopeful that someday there will be a sentiment favoring paying taxes to support big science in a bigger way, but that day is not now.

I have no love for bogus conspiracy theories, but guess I can see why a more cynical generation questions if we ever really went to the moon when we haven't been back in forty years.

Wouldn't it be cool if we could pick where our taxes would be spent??? Now that would bring about change....

What's funny is that if tomorrow, China were to announce that they are going to the moon with the goal of eventually setting up a permanent base there, Congress would vote NASA a bottomless purse faster than you can say "blast-off".

NASA will never be able to have a goal and stick to it as long as the goals are set by politicians who are subject to re-election every 2-6 years. In many ways having Kennedy set the goal as the moon in landmark speech was part of the problem. Once that was achieved and the Soviets humbled, all interest in funding manned flight began to dribble away.

On the other hand, having Kennedy set the goal was possibly the one way to ensure that we accomplished it. We have had other presidents set ambitious goals for NASA and other programs (Reagan and Star Wars, Bush rolled out a 'new vision for NASA' to return to the moon) but succeeding administrations found it pretty easy to shift priorities. Because of Kennedy's assassination, I think there was a great sense in the country that we had to fulfil his ambitions, not quite a dying wish, but something like that in the national psyche. Had Johnson tried to re-prioritize or cancel the program, it would be seen as a betrayal of a president that we still had a strong emotional attachment too. Not sure it would have had the same effect if the speech had been made by Eisenhower or Johnson (or Nixon!).

Wouldn't it be cool if we could pick where our taxes would be spent??? Now that would bring about change....

What's funny is that if tomorrow, China were to announce that they are going to the moon with the goal of eventually setting up a permanent base there, Congress would vote NASA a bottomless purse faster than you can say "blast-off".

And we'd have to borrow the money from .... wait for it .... it's coming .... the Chinese!

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Occasionally, and randomly, problems and solutions collide. The probability of these collisions is inversely related to the number of committees working on the solutions. -- Me.